More People Properly Disposing of Prescription Drugs

A local effort to collect and properly dispose of expired prescription drugs is bringing in more participants. Sue Johnson is the Nutrition-Health Promotion Planner for KIPDA – the Kentuckiana Regional Planning and Development Agency. She says KIPDA has been working for the last three years to reduce the amount of prescription drugs that are tossed into the sink or toilet and end up in the city’s water supply.

She says they recycle the medicine containers and hand the drugs over to local narcotics officers.

“They have a special place to take it where these items are incinerated. So they are not throwing them into the water supply, or landfills either, they are actually destroying them,” said Johnson

In its first year, the program collected 284 pounds of drugs. One day into its three-day event this year, that number was 215 pounds. Information about the program is available from KIPDA or Louisville Metro Police.